The National Library of Armenia has issued the following statement:

“During the state of emergency declared in Armenia, the NLA only worked online, and the Internet servers were regulated remotely. On May 10, to clarify the reasons for disruption of Internet connection and lack of online access to the electronic databases of the National Library of Armenia (NLA), employees of the NLA found certain electronic devices turned to ashes along with one of the police officers in charge of building maintenance. Later, an employee of the Ministry of Emergency Situations providing service in the building also arrived. The administration of the NLA immediately applied to the Minister of Emergency Situations to clarify the nature and circumstances of the incident, but relevant specialists still haven’t arrived. Since the police officers in charge of building maintenance and a security officer of the NLA stated that there had been a power outage, the administration also applied to the director of the Electric Networks of Armenia with the request for information, but there is still no answer.

As far as the servers and the materials kept in those servers are concerned, the materials digitized and archived throughout the years are also saved on carriers. Therefore, in this sense, the archived materials aren’t lost, and the technical condition of the servers is reassuring, based on the assessment of the Library’s specialist, but only after an investigation into the incident and provision of a record on the investigation will it be possible to give a complete evaluation. Currently, the NLA is taking actions to transfer all the digitized materials to a cloud system and make them available for readers again,” the statement reads.

Earlier, former director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia Hayk Demoyan had posted on his Facebook page that source materials devoted to the Armenian Genocide had turned to ashes in a matter of hours.